LOVE, PEACE AND UNITY ARE THE BASICS OF CHRISTIAN FAMILY
The Feast of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph reminds us of love, peace, and unity, which are the basics of the Christian family. The Holy Family is a perfect model of family life today in our society. Especially as many have lost the sense of family through governmental and media disorientations. The instrumental tools of Satan destabilized the most fundamental nucleon of the world.
There is no institution in the world under attack or siege from within itself and from outside. We all exist because of family. The importance of family cannot be overemphasized in any age of human existence. God, the creator and sustainer of the world, including human beings, is a Trinitarian family. Again, when God wanted to come into the world. He came to us through the human family.
The attack on the family from the evil one is a fundamental rejection of God and sustaining principle of his creation. The destruction of humanity and its society is only successful with the destruction of the human family. Today, the family is under siege from all sides and angles: – religious, cultural, political, social, moral, ethical, and economical
OUR THEME
The feast of Christmas is a celebration of a family. A holy family model of all families. That is, a shining example to all human families. An exemplary family who decided to do the will of God and brought about the salvation of the world. The family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph is a family that brought much-needed hope, joy, happiness, peace, and love to the troubled world.
The readings present us with how the human family in their day to day lives struggles to fulfil the commandment and will of God. God is the generator, operator and director of the human family and their affair. Therefore, it is only in God that our human family has meaning, fulfilment, and happiness.
The readings also indirectly make us understand clearly that family lives are plunged into chaos, crises and anarchies when God is absent.
Furthermore, the readings demonstrate that family peace and unity can only be lived within the dynamic of love. God is love (1 John 4:8). All human love finds its fulfilling meaning and expression in this transforming love of God.
FIRST READING: 1 SAMUEL 1:20-22
Elkanah and Hannah dedicate their son, Samuel, to God. It is a perfect traditional example of family living and fulfilling the divine mandate of God. Through the intervention of God, a child was born onto them, and they consecrated him as a Nazirite to God.
Hence, the boy Samuel was presented God and left in service of the Lord. Under the care and guidance of Eli, the priest of God.
Obviously, it is not only getting and bringing forth children into the world that make marriage and family. It is in living with the divine of God. That is, of educating and nurturing the children in the way of the Lord.
The Christian rite of presenting or dedicating a child to God is part of Christian parenting and responsibility.
PSALM 83
The Psalmist through the psalm of the day (Ps 83) and its responsorial. He reminds us that happy homes are the fruit of our faithfulness to God. As well as in-dwelling with the Lord. The family who dwells in the presence of the Lord
The psalm presents us with one beautiful reality of families. Those who have the Lord as their dwelling place. They will be forever be disappointed as family life. They would be happy, lovely, hearty and joyful in their longing for life and its fulfilment.
Such families walk with ever-growing strength in God, their shield and protection.
It is not only that family is in disarray and dysfunctional due to societal, cultural and economic pressure. In many families, God is dead or in complete absence. This is the fundamental cause of crisis and chaos in the world.
SECOND READING: 1 JOHN 3:1-2, 21-24
God is love. All our love is a human expression of the love of God. The love of God is lavished on us through the mystery of Christmas, the feast of the holy family. We are called to pass on this love to each other in our families.
For Evangelist John, God love is experienced in the family when we trust and obey his commandments. These are the families who abide in the love of God forever. The love of God makes us adoptive children of God in Christ Jesus. This is the most fundamental privilege of Christian faith and life.
In essence, love is the most vital force of family and human relationships. It is the only thing that makes us human in marriages and families.
GOSPEL: LUKE 2:41-52
Before, we talk about the theme of family and how the holy family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph are the perfect models for Christian families. We must establish that though marriage leads to family. Marriage is the relationship between man and woman.
Equally, family is marriage and children. Hence, one of the principal functions of the family is begotten children, education of these children in the way of God and human values.
This is what the family of Mary and Joseph did in the gospel of today exactly.
They were practising Jewish parents who were models of Jewish faith before their adolescent son. The best testimony of Christian faith and life is not what the parents say. It is in what they do and how they live their lives before their Christian.
As traditional Jewish religious living requires, Jesus was introduced to their faith practices, traditions and values from his earlier days. The best of Christian is instilled in the heart and minds of children from the early stage of life.
The seed of faith sown in Christ bears more fruits and flourishes in his contact with the temple of God and faith leaders. He stayed some days behind in Jerusalem. Where he fell in love and admiration for God, listening and asking questions. Our Christian and personal vocations can be discerned and attained through parental guidance.
The Jewish extended family lifestyle does make Mary and Joseph irresponsible parents. They knew Jesus was somewhere in the caravan, and families and friends would look after him. At the same time, they were not overprotective parents who controlled or limited how Jesus developed, grew, and experienced life and the people around him. Hence, the adolescent Jesus with liberty moves freely in the caravan. Unfortunately, he did stay back in Jerusalem without parental consent or knowledge.
However, when they discovered their son was not in the caravan. They swiftly moved to action to find him everywhere and even back to the temple in Jerusalem. Mary and Joseph, for a brief time, lost their son. They sought him out with anxiety, must have felt what many parents with lost children go through today.
Figuratively, when they lost their son, they were restlessly and un-relentless in their effort to find him. Though they were anxious but patient, they sought him out conscious of his mission to be the Saviour of mankind. The challenge to us today is that, as parents, do we make a conscious effort to search or redeem our lost children spiritually and humanly? Children who have lost God, virtues or decency? Do we seek them out tirelessly through prayers and watchful parental guidance?
When they found Jesus in the temple after being lost for three days. There was no abusive parental attitude towards the boy Jesus by Mary and Joseph. Even though he caused them a great deal of stress and pain for three days. They were relieved at they found him, a normal rebuking of a loving and caring mother.
Probably, Jesus did apologize to his parents for his conduct to stay behind in Jerusalem. Possibly, with respect and admiration, the rabbis must have looked at Mary and Joseph with a sense of pride. Jesus, their son, was the intelligent and well-prepared lad with great insight and curiosity on the things of God. How often do we see with loving patience the mistakes of our children? Through the lens of gaining life experience through their errors or judgements?
Finally, we are told Christ learnt his lesson from his mistake to Jerusalem without parental consent. And went home with his parents in obedience and lived under their authority growing, and developing in divine wisdom and favour.
The gospel text of today allows us to reflect on Christian parenting. And how we handle our children, especially the adolescents in the family. We cannot raise our children, especially adolescents and youths, by iron-fist authority. That is often an abused manner of parenting. There are many a parent who is high-handed with their children in the name of discipline. We should guide by love, understanding, care and tolerance with fraternal corrections.
There is no room for family to be a brutal place of destroying or damaging the self-esteem or self-worth through go, pride or superiority mentally of discipline. From the gospel story, we know that family is a humble home of uplifting, enriching, supporting and caring for each other. On the last Sunday of the calendar year, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. On this feast day, we should pray for our own families and all their members on the altar of God, asking for his blessing on them. Equally, through the inspiration of the Holy Family, we obtain guidance.
FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS
Are you aware no family is perfect, and it is alright for families to have quarrels and misunderstandings? Do you know then that forgiveness is the central action of families?
How is your family like? Is it built or modelled after the holy family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph?
Is your family built upon the foundation of love, peace and unity in God? What place does God hold in the origin and modus operandi of your family?
LIFE LESSONS FROM THE CELEBRATION OF THE HOLY FAMILY
(a) We need to learn and imitate the lessons from the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph. We must imitate their encouragement, inspiration and example. As a parent, they have the first responsibility of educating their children. They bear witness to this responsibility first by creating a home where tenderness, forgiveness, respect, fidelity, and disinterested service are the rule. The home is well-suited for education in the virtues. This requires an apprenticeship in self-denial, sound judgment, and self-mastery – the preconditions of all true freedom. (CCC #2223).
(b)Marriage: a Sacrament of holiness. The Feast of the Holy Family reminds us that, as the basic unit of the universal Church, each family is called to holiness. This depends on how they obey the commandments and do the will of God. The husband and wife attain holiness when they discharge their duties faithfully. When they trust in God and draw on the presence and power of the Holy Spirit through personal and family prayer, meditative reading of the Bible, and devout participation in Holy Mass.
(c) We need to make the family a confessional Place of forgiveness rather than a courtroom of bitterness and vengeance. On the other hand, if the husband and the wife — as in a confessional — are ready to admit their faults and try to correct them, the family becomes a Heavenly one. Where parental love creates the highest sense of security and stability for the children.
(e) Parents and children need to examine their consciences on the Feast of the only perfect and Holy Family. All parents might evaluate themselves and see how well they are fulfilling the grave responsibility which God has placed on them. Equally, children need to heed the call to be docile and obedient towards their parents.
Today as we celebrate with the joy of Christmas this holy family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, let us pray for the grace of caring for one another in our own families. For each member of the parish family and for all families of the universal Church. May God bless all our families in the New Year. Amen! Jesus, Mary and Joseph pray for us. Amen!
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, You came to us through a family. You also lived and developed to full maturity with a family. You had a PROVIDENT AND CARING FATHER JOSEPH, AND HOLY, DEVOTED MOTHER MARY. May our human families always be a place of peace, love, and harmony. Help us find in our family a place of mercy, grace, forgiveness, growth and development humanly and spiritually! Amen
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